The Skeptical Inquirer by Kendrick Frazier, Editor

For years paranormalists complained: "Why don't scientists investigate this?" Now that scientists regularly take up the challenge in the pages of the Skeptical Inquirer, the true believers howl "Debunkers!" and run the other way. For ten years, this Journal of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal has been a lone voice in a sea of irrationality. High quality articles with plenty of references thoroughly survey and analyze all kinds of paranormal claims. Sure, there's plenty of debunking, usually right on target. Anyone who reads from the extensive literature of the paranormal has to read the Skeptical Inquirer, if only for balance. I purchased a complete set of back issues; you can't get this information anywhere else. -- T.S.

Matthew's chest pains disappeared. His relationships improved with his wife, his children, his coworkers, and his community. If I were a pro-reincarnation therapist, I might argue that his cardiac neurosis was related to his death in a previous lifetime and that his recovery was made possible by recalling the event in hypnosis. However, because my thinking is more in tune with contemporary psychology, I emphasize that Matthew, like many psychosomatic patients, was under a significant degree of stress but lacked the means to express his emotions adequately. He was aware of this problem and traced its origin to his father's strict discipline. Age regression in hypnosis permitted some aspiration of pent-up emotion, but a deeply therapeutic abreaction did not occur until he "regressed" to the alleged past life of Jacques Trecaulte. The further he got from reality, in other words, the more he was able to show emotion. Past-life regressions may be therapeutic not because they are real but precisely because they are not. They create distance from reality and allow the expression of otherwise taboo thoughts and emotions.

Stephen Barrett "sent a healthy four-year-old girl to five chiropractors for a 'check up.' The first said the child's shoulder blades were 'out of place' and found 'pinched nerves to her stomach and gall bladder.' The second said the child's pelvis was 'twisted.' The third said one hip was 'elevated' and that spinal misalignments could cause 'headaches, nervousness, equilibrium or digestive problems' in the future. The fourth predicted 'bad periods and rough childbirth' if her 'shorter left leg' were not treated. The fifth not only found hip and neck problems, but also 'adjusted them' without bothering to ask permission." Completely inconsistent findings were also diagnosed in two adult women.